Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

In after Baud. Damn.

Stand up, dammit!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Breaking: Jill Karofsky Has Defeated Scott Walker Appointed Incumbent Dan Kelly!

Breaking: Jill Karofsky Has Defeated Scott Walker Appointed Incumbent Dan Kelly!

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Wisconsin Needs Our Help

(Iron Brigade Forward – The 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Leg by Major General John Reynolds at Gettysburg painting by Mark Maritato)

We have some really good news out of Wisconsin this evening! Jill Karofsky, the liberal challenger, has defeated the Scott Walker appointed incumbent on the Wisconsin state supreme court!

Dan Kelly wasn’t just a conservative judge, whatever that actually means any more given what we’ve seen over the past several years, he was an unapologetic racist too.

The Wisconsin supreme court still has a conservative majority with 4 conservative justices to what will be 3 liberal justices once Justice-elect Karofsky is sworn in. Which is definitely better than the 5-2 conservative majority should soon to be former Justice Kelly been reelected to a ten year term.

For all the Wisconsites that braved the bad weather and potential exposure to COVID-19, well done!!!!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  3. 3.

    Pooh

    I mean it’s not completely funny, considering they made people vote in person during a pandemic, but get fucked, Wisconsin GOP.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    It wasn’t that long ago that Dems were worried about flipping Wisconsin in November.  Good sign.

  9. 9.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    20 percentage points Cheryl?  Wow, what a thumping.  Other (possibly) good news is that this might make the conservatives pause on similar shenanigans in November.  Who am I kidding, they are going to double down, so we need to fight twice as hard….

  10. 10.

    Llelldorin

    I somehow don’t think Wisconsinites are going to forgive and forget being made to risk their lives in a stupidly cynical attempt to prevent this, either.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    Five will get you three that the Republicans head back to the court, and eventually the Supremes, demanding that late mail-in ballots be counted.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    I salute every patriot in Wisconsin who risked their lives to throw that asshole out on his ear. Hopefully it’s making the rest of the conservative assholes nervous that they can’t keep their seats even with massive cheating at all levels.

    My Trump-voting cousin in Waukesha has slowly shut her goddamned mouth over the last few months, and even did her civic duty as a pollworker last week in a mask and gloves. I think that she may finally be returning to some semblance of sanity. I hope.

  15. 15.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @Ken: That would be Hilarious,  I’d love to have the defendants throw Bush vs. Gore (2000) and let the conservative branch choke on it.

  17. 17.

    Mai naem mobile

    The Orange Menace is having a bad day. Now he will deny he ever endorsed Dan Kelly because he’s scared the loser cooties will stick to him.

  18. 18.

    sdhays

    @Baud:  Also means that their attempt to use the virus for their own advantage failed, which is an important lesson.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    RESULTS: Both judges appointed by former Gov. Scott Walker — Judge Paul Dedinsky and Judge Dan Gabler — lose by at least 20 percentage points.— Daniel Bice (@DanielBice) April 13, 2020

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    RESULTS: Both judges appointed by former Gov. Scott Walker — Judge Paul Dedinsky and Judge Dan Gabler — lose by at least 20 percentage points.

    This IS good news!

    And I can use some today.

     

    ETA: Just been a busy/crappy work day.

  26. 26.

    cain

    This is the biggest fuck you to conservatives thus far. Also, yes.. they will remember that they had to show up. They will not be looking kindly at GOP at this point.

    Since the GOP pretty much has no other playbook, they are going to keep playing it and use their media channels to keep FUD’ing. But I think this virus is fucking their playbook hard. If by June, you think the GOP is a competent party and will not abjure them… you are lost.

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Mai naem mobile: Now he will deny he ever endorsed Dan Kelly because he’s scared the loser cooties will stick to him.

    As with all things even vaguely epidemiological, Trump doesn’t understand the direction of loser cootie flow.

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    @rikyrah: Are these other two at some other court level? I know almost nothing about Wisconsin, except that it’s north of Illinois. And why are judicial races decided in April and not November with the other races?

  31. 31.

    PenAndKey

    So my daughter was born today and she’s in perfect health. Mrs P&K is too, and we have been enjoying our family time all day in a virus quarantined hospital so P&K Jr had to spend the day with his grandparents. Not perfect, but we made the best of it and he got to say hi to her by video conferencing.

    Now I find out that the GOP got hammered in WI and that my fellow Wisconsin voters told the GOP to fuck off? 

    Today is, officially, a damn good day in my world even with the wierdness.

  32. 32.

    Patricia Kayden

    WOW!!!HUGE THANK YOU to every Karofsky voter who risked their life to go to the polls, every voter who stood in line for hours, and stood up to GOP voter suppression and cheating. t.co/aikt4QfLTv— Laffy (@GottaLaff) April 13, 2020

  36. 36.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Gin & Tonic: And why are judicial races decided in April and not November with the other races?

    I’m assuming the GOP figured turnout would be lower in April than in November, and they’d win a low-turnout race.

    If so, they figured wrong.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @Ken: 

    Five will get you three that the Republicans head back to the court, and eventually the Supremes, demanding that late mail-in ballots be counted.

    That would take chutzpah even for Republicans. What I definitely expect to see them argue is that this proves that all the obstacles they put in the way of voting aren’t really obstacles after all. Hey, if they got that kind of turnout with only 5 polling stations in Milwaukee, that just proves they can permanently move to just 5 polling stations there without it being an impediment.

  40. 40.

    cokane

    I’m willing to bet you’ll see some low turnout in Republican districts in the state, as I was saying in another thread. Obviously hard to compare a spring election during a pandemic with anything really. But I think there is a strong Trump fatigue among the diehard conservatives right now (not most of them of course) quite similar to the fatigue Republican voters had in 2008.

  46. 46.

    Sebastian

    @PenAndKey:

    Sincere congratulations. May you have a lifetime of love, joy, and parental pride.

    Wishing you that the worries always stay small.

    Now get some sleep while you still can :)

  47. 47.

    jayjaybear

    As the WI GOP lege has demonstrated, they’ll just strip all of the Democratic judges of their powers and give them to the GOP judges. Republicans will never accept defeat if they can somehow snatch victory, legally or not.

  48. 48.

    Kent

    @low-tech cyclist:

    I’m assuming the GOP figured turnout would be lower in April than in November, and they’d win a low-turnout race.

    If so, they figured wrong.

    It was a dumbass move because there was an active Dem primary  but Trump was running unopposed (or all but unopposed).  But maybe the calendar was fixed and not subject to manipulation. I don’t know how things are done there.

  49. 49.

    cain

    @low-tech cyclist:

    I’m assuming the GOP figured turnout would be lower in April than in November, and they’d win a low-turnout race.

    If so, they figured wrong.

    “They counted Democrats to be passive, they counted wrong.” – Reagan

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Pooh: I’d like to second that with a hearty

    LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!1!

    Eat it, vote-suppressing scumbags!

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer @RachelBitecofer 8m
    Just to remind everyone, they gave Democrats 5 out of 180 polling locations in Milwaukee- and they still kicked their ass.
    @benwikler is a gangsta.

    Dave Weigel @daveweigel 55m
    One short-term impact of the liberal’s court win in Wisconsin will be on the fight over a purge of 200k voters. Court had been split 3-3 with a conservative joining the 2 liberals and Kelly abstaining due to this election. So there’s now a 4-3 majority against the purge.

    good news, assuming that one con judge doesn’t flip when the case comes up

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    @cain: LOL

    He’ll never turn, but he has to be thinking about GOP exit strategies for trumpov at this point…I’ll encourage him to give at least 10% of the energy he devoted towards various and weird “brokered Dem convention” scenarios…it’s really the least he could do!

  62. 62.

    PenAndKey

    @dmsilev: I waited until I had to come home to feed the pets to post :)

    With the restrictions in place its easier for me to sleep at home and get retested every morning to enter labor and delivery. It’s odd, but it works. She and baby are going to spent the next two nights in the hospital for recovery so my nights are still mine for a couple more days.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @artem1s: I was just about to put a comment in explaining the context of the picture above, so I guess doing it in reply to your comment makes sense. For full disclosure, the brigade combat team I deployed to Iraq with, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team/1st Armored Division, is the modern Iron Brigade and its crests and challenge coin, are a modern variant of the original Iron Brigade’s.

    To the picture above. As the first full day of battle at Gettysburg begins, the only Union troops in what we would now call the battle space are those of Major General Buford, Commanding General of the 1st Division. He’s got two brigades of Union cavalry and an artillery battery, known as Calef’s Battery, in support. He and his Soldiers had ridden into Gettysburg the day before, come through town, and encountered some Confederate troops, which had quickly withdrawn. Buford, who had written his own cavalry manual and actually first used the phrase “move mounted, fight dismounted” that GEN Petraeus would adapt into “move mounted, work dismounted” as part of his counterinsurgency guidance in Iraq during the Surge, recognized that if he acted quickly he could seize the high ground in Gettysburg. So he did three things that set the theater for the battle to come over the next several days. The first thing he did was survey the town and the land around it. The second was to place his Soldiers west of the seminary that was west of Gettysburg. His line was on either side of the Cashtown Road and spanned from just north of Hagerstown Road to just south of Mummasburg Road. The third thing was that he wrote off to his commander, Major General John Reynolds. He explained what had happened that afternoon, described the terrain, detailed how he’d deployed his forces, indicated that he had the ground and could hold – provided support arrived as soon as possible the next morning.

    Reynolds, who grew up in Lancaster and therefore knew the ground Buford was on, easily grasped what Buford had told him. After receiving Buford’s report and request for support, Reynold’s wrote back that he would come in the morning as soon as possible

    Buford and his men dug in and waited out the night. The next morning, the 1st of July, came and shortly after dawn the Confederates began to press against Buford’s lines. As Buford’s men held their positions Reynolds brought up his wing of the Army of the Potomac. At the head of the line was the Iron Brigade: the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, the 24th Michigan, and the 19th Indiana regiments. Reynolds got them moving towards the Confederates, rode over to link up with Buford in the cupola of the seminary, and then came down with him, finished their conversation, mounted his horse, rode off, and was killed in the saddle riding back towards his Soldiers to bring the rest of his Corps onto the field.

    The painting is of Reynolds bringing the 2nd Wisconsin, at the front of the Iron Brigade onto the field of battle just prior to meeting with Buford and being killed in action.

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    My hope for the November election is that as people realize Republicans want us to die in order to vote them out, people will pull a Han Solo, say “then I’ll see you in Hell,” and vote anyway. t.co/g3JRMpT7ct— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 14, 2020

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kent: I think it is the difference between the state supreme court election and lower state court elections.

  75. 75.

    artem1s

    @Adam L Silverman: 
    I am soooooo jealous. I loved the Civil War series he wrote for Esquire. He was in the middle of it when the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie happened. I wrote him an email asking him if he might have time to pen one of his great takes on a little known piece of American history. He was very gracious in his reply that he did have some great stories but just not the time.

    Mostly I loved his pieces on the Civil War for one particular reason – he always made it clear who the Americans were and who were the traitors. He never parsed words about what should have happened to the traitor Lee. And he put to rest the awful lies that the North was in it for profit and only won thru strength of numbers.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @PenAndKey:

    With the restrictions in place its easier for me to sleep at home and get retested every morning to enter labor and delivery. It’s odd, but it works.

    a full-on nasal swab?

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @artem1s: Last thing I heard from him was that he had a post retirement fellowship at Center for American Progress if I’m recalling the think tank correctly. Pretty sure it wasn’t CNAS.

  86. 86.

    mvr

    @PenAndKey: So my daughter was born today and she’s in perfect health. Mrs P&K is too, and we have been enjoying our family time all day in a virus quarantined hospital so P&K Jr had to spend the day with his grandparents.

    Congratulations! Stay safe.

  87. 87.

    PenAndKey

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: thankfully no. Just a temperature and respiratory check and a promise by me that I’m not going anywhere but home and the hospital. Basically the same screening the employees are getting. Staying at the hospital would be ideal, but it’s not really practical for that long a stay.

  88. 88.

    patrick II

    @Kent:

    It was a dumbass move because there was an active Dem primary.

    I was peeved at Bernie for not dropping out earlier, but I’ve gotten over it.

  89. 89.

    cain

    It is so amusing to read Rick Wilson and Tom Nichols – especially when they pull out the “if Obama had done this.. ” which of course all of us here in Democratic land do all the goddam time. I feel like they’ve become part of the hive mind now with that. Tom is of course is a conservative through and through but at least he’s consistent even though I think he’s wrong, but he does seem to enjoy fighting with his followers.

  90. 90.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cain: every once in a while Wilson talks about a Republican in office moaning about trump and fear of the Cleti who support him. He should burn those fuckers. Maybe on Nov 1

  91. 91.

    sdhays

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s kind of built-in nefarious, though, right? Having the election in April is pretty much guaranteed to be a low turnout election with respect to the main event in November. I live in a state with off-year elections for statewide office and it’s the same thing. There’s not really a good reason for it.

  93. 93.

    artem1s

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’s on LinkedIn.  Last I heard he was coming back to the US from an appointment in UK.  But I just looked him up and he’s living in the CLE/Akron area!  His post has a picture of him sailing on Erie.  Small world!

  95. 95.

    sdhays

    @PenAndKey: Congratulations! My son was born just over a year ago. He was born with some initial respiratory issues (nothing serious since he got treatment, but man, if it had been a hundred years ago…thank you modern medicine!) and had to stay in the NICU for a few days. My wife and I are often thinking how relieved we are to not have had to deal with that while COVID-19 is going on. So it’s soo great that your wife and daughter are healthy and will be able to come home soon!

    Congrats again!

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Taniel @Taniel 1h
    Trump tweeted 4 times in April urging Wisconsites to vote for Dan Kelly. “A BIG VOTE!” he called it. Once he specifically notes the state Supreme Court ruling that maintained election; GOP & conservatives judges blocked postponment/extension. Kelly lost decisively.

    I wonder if, as he scrolls through his phone during Hannity’s commercials, trump will see enough people mocking him for this that he’ll feel the need to tweet out how he never liked Dan Kelly anyway. That and seeing people call him stupid and unhinged and whiny.

  97. 97.

    ballerat

    @cain: If by June, you think the GOP is a competent party and will not abjure them… you are lost.

    June? By June of 2001, right? Because by June of ’01 it was obvious GW and the GOP were fuckups. Most everyone knew even before the first vote was cast. 9/11 happened because they were fuckups. So did the drowning of NOLA. And the financial disaster of 2008. Because it wasn’t about competence.

    They dropped the excuses of small government, no deficits and states rights in 2016 to run naked with their bigotry. The people who vote for them are un-abjurable. It was never about competence.

  98. 98.

    japa21

    We have extended family in northern WI that are Trumpers through and through.

    Below is a FB post by one of them and then replies:

     

     

    Wow! Great job Wisconsin. There are 3rd world countries that have more honest elections. The voters lose.

    Stealing elections are only thing they are good at, several county people saying their counties have not submitted all the ballots yet.

    I’m moving!! She is not my Supreme Court rep, it’s voter fraud, it’s rigged, she is a racist, is she from Russia?, let’s impeach her. Get ready dems, what goes around comes around.

    Every body needs to get out and vote …don’t get placid about this.
    This is now a fight for our freedom.

  100. 100.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He has a remarkably poor record of getting the people he endorses elected. He has managed to lose races in places that are considered barely possible for Democrats to win. In a healthy/normal political party, that would make Republican candidates shun him.

  103. 103.

    JCJ

    @ballerat:

    Those “discovered” votes were actually in Brookfield (in Waukesha County), but as fishy as it seemed the vote total achieved with those ballots was what would typically be expected there. Most likely explanation was that the county clerk was simply incompetent

  104. 104.

    Jeffro

    @japa21: 

    I love the completely mindless “I’m rubber, you’re glue, all the things you rightly accuse trumpublicans of…sticks to you!!!” third quote. LOLOL

  105. 105.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And you’ve been on an Iron Brigade run lately, what the hell have you been reading? (Or was it Mr. Levenson who used the Iron Brigade in a post the other day?).

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @sdhays: He rallies their mouth-breather base…and fires up our folks even more.  That is the equation, and I’m stickin’ to it.  =)

  110. 110.

    Mandalay

    Since Wilbur Ross gets a mention in this article about the census I know there’s a scam going on, but I just can’t figure out exactly what it is…

    The U.S. Census Bureau wants to delay deadlines for the 2020 head count of all U.S. residents because of the coronavirus outbreak, a move that if approved by lawmakers would push back timetables for releasing data used to draw congressional and legislative districts, officials said Monday.

    The Census Bureau officials said they were postponing all field operations until June 1 and the deadline for wrapping up the nation’s head count was being pushed back to Oct. 31.

    Field operations for the 2020 census have been suspended since mid-March and were set to resume this week. The deadline for finishing the head count also had been pushed back from the end of July to mid-August because of the pandemic.

    Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the bureau, said they are seeking to delay the deadline for delivering state population counts used for apportionment — the process of carving up congressional districts — from the end of this year to the end of next April.

    They also want to push back the deadline for giving states data for redistricting from the end of next March to the end of next July.

    Both deadlines are established by federal law and any changes would require congressional approval.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Florida Man, Florida Man

    Doing the things, that Florida can

    James LaPorta@JimLaPorta
    DeSantis deems pro wrestling ‘essential business’ amid statewide stay-at-home order

  124. 124.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike in DC: I’ve never met Bateman in person. I know Farley the same way – by email. Also, Paul Campos, Erik Loomis, and Dan Nexon. I’ve been in contact with Farley longest, since 2006, though he never got back to me the last time I emailed.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mandalay: The scam is that if Biden wins the White House, but they push the data release back so that reapportionment can’t happen until after the 2022 midterms, the Republicans believe they can replicate what they did in the 2010 midterms: take the majority of state legislative seats in that years election thereby giving them state legislative majorities allowing them to either further gerrymander or re-gerrymander state legislative districts and Federal congressional districts.

  126. 126.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Miss Bianca: At this point, I’m sort of ashamed to admit that I have a complete Civil War uniform for the 8th NY Heavy Artillery. Not for reenacting, but for team musket shooting at breakable targets. I quit when the wingnuttery got too bad.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The only major promotion still being produced in Florida for a weekly show is AEW and whatever WWE is filming in Orlando, which has already gone to no crowds. Just the wrestlers.

  128. 128.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: I love Gettysburg and going and walking the battlefield. One of the things I miss the most about no longer being assigned to USAWC, which is only a 25 to 30 minute drive from Gettysburg.

  129. 129.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman: I have heard it’s a very spooky-feeling place, even 150 + years later.

    The only American Civil War battlefield I’ve ever been on, I think, is Glorieta Pass. I visited Arlington National Cemetery as a young one on a church choir trip (we sang at the National Cathedral!), but can’t remember if we visited any of the battlefields round about DC.

  131. 131.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: Thank you for posting the information about  the painting.

    We took my dad to DC and Gettysburg in 2005. He was 87, and it was part of our trip to see the WWII Memorial in DC that I’d promised him when it was dedicated, but he wanted to wait a year or two to let the crowds die down. He was a little disappointed because he didn’t think that the friezes had given more than the barest nod to the Signal Corps. He said the least they could have done is put a radio truck in the background of one panel. After that we went to Gettysburg and hired one of the guides who drives your car around and talks for a couple of hours, and we were so delighted with his knowledge that we gave him a 100% tip.

    When we got to Little Round Top, Dad was delighted to see the Signal Corps Memorial plaque. We stayed in the hotel that Lincoln stayed in when he came to speak after the battle, and he thought that was pretty special even though we were in a newer part of the building. I think that jaunt to Gettysburg made the whole trip for him.

    flic.kr/p/fugvu

  134. 134.

    BC in Illinois

    I have Alan Nolan’s book on the Iron Brigade and Harry Pfanz’s on Gettysburg: The First Day. 

    I have the History of the 24th Michigan of the Iron Brigade. (First chapter – – “The Slaveholders’ Rebellion.”)

    I have an Iron Brigade trucker’s hat.

    I have the copy of the document awarding a widow’s pension to my g’gmother, from which I find out which company my g’g’father, John Colter C_____, was in, in the Michigan 24th.

    It took my brother to track down the fact that g’g’pa came to the Iron Brigade late. He was not at Chancellorsville, he was not at Gettysburg. He was in the honor guard at Lincoln’s funeral in Springfield.

    The author of the regimental history was gracious in the listing of those who joined up late. Along the lines of: “We recruited them. We were glad they joined. This book would not be complete without recording them.” I still think of g’g’pa as one of the men in the black hats. He joined a storied unit after it had been nearly decimated. In a small way, that was his story too.

    My story? Just in the re-telling.

  135. 135.

    opiejeanne

    @PenAndKey: YAY! Congratulations!

    I’m so happy for you all.

    I know this is sappy but I remember a comment by Carl Sandburg that I ran across 60 years ago, that a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.

  137. 137.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @opiejeanne:

    We stayed in the hotel that Lincoln stayed in when he came to speak after the battle

    that’s pretty cool– Gettysburg is on my list. I actually had a half-formed plan to travel to DC and rent a car to check out Gettysburg and maybe a couple other battlefields and/or presidential sites– Mount Vernon, Monticello and Madison’s home (Montpelier/ yes, googled). This spring. Oh well.

  138. 138.

    danielx

    @Miss Bianca:

    It is a spooky place even now. I wouldn’t care to spend the night under the trees on Little Round Top for any amount of money, or several other places there for that matter.

    I’ve read that Shiloh is even more so, as – aside from the cemeteries – the battlefield is still pretty much as it was in 1862.

  140. 140.

    Gravenstone

    As I noted elsewhere, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of this outcome. And hopefully it portends an end all things Republican come November. Not just in Wisconsin, but nationwide.

  141. 141.

    catclub

    @ballerat: Because by June of ’01 it was obvious GW and the GOP were fuckups.

     

    Yes! The navy reconnaissance plane taken down  by the chinese, and the Navy sub showboating with VIP’s on board and colliding with a Japanese fishing vessel (killing student on board) when it surfaced explosively.

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    @opiejeanne: Excellent! Except for the WW II Memorial part. Honestly, that monument is way overdone. I do not know why they picked that design.

  145. 145.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes he did! Former SBA administrator Linda McMahon now runs a pro-Trump SuperPAC and they have donated to DeSantis and other members of the Florida GOP. So…

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    @BC in Illinois: Excellent! I have both an Iron Brigade (2BCT/1AD) mug and ball cap from my time in Iraq and an Iron Brigade (original version) mug from Gettysburg. When I was at USAWC I had them set up on a shelf side by side.

  150. 150.

    Mandalay

    Florida (police) Man rears his ugly head. This is the kind of knuckle dragging bullshit that started fading away in the 1990s in most places, but here in Florida we have to keep it alive:

    When his officers raised concerns about catching the coronavirus, a South Florida police chief tried minimizing their worries by claiming a Broward County deputy’s COVID-19 death was caused by his “homosexual” lifestyle, the officers alleged.

    Chief Dale Engle, the head of the Town of Davie’s police department, made the remarks during an angry tirade against the officers after a patrol briefing on April 7, according to a complaint filed to town administration by a state police union that represents the officers.

    Engle was placed on administrative leave Saturday evening “pending further review of allegations,” the town administration said in a statement.

  153. 153.

    Cleardale

    @Adam L Silverman: I was in 2nd BCT 1/6 in Iraq. I never learned much unit history while I was there between deployment and then switching to 170th once we got back. Nice to pick up some even now.

  156. 156.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, it seemed more than a bit too much, that WWII Memorial.

    I loved visiting Gettysburg and would do it again because we missed about half of the things we wanted to do because of Dad’s age. He was getting tired.

    This past summer we visited the site of the Yazoo Expedition, in the swamps below Vicksburg, or tried to. We were there in late June and most of it was under water. Still, we saw the National Battleground and the Cairo, that was sunk just before that battle that ended so disastrously just before the Yazoo Expedition got there. ; my great great grandfather died of a wound acquired there, in the swamp.

  157. 157.

    danielx

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I lived in Bristow, Virginia for about six months (corporate relocation horror story) and ended up learning much more about various Civil War campaigns in the area. Broad Run was visible from my back yard, where Stonewall Jackson marched his troops on the way to Manassas Junction. It was and is an area where you can’t drive or walk a mile without seeing something named Lee,  Jackson or both nor yet without tripping over a historical marker of some sort.

  160. 160.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mvr: cool, thanks. I’d never heard of it.

    @Adam L Silverman: I didn’t know Mrs McMahon had left public service. I wonder if per tradition she was fired on or from the crapper. I’m sure not, since they’re real billionaires and seem oddly willing to share that money with trump. Didn’t they give the ‘trump foundation’ what money it had, to pay for that infamous portrait?

    Speaking of real billionaires and trump’s allergy to charity, I read that J.B. Pritzker had made a substantial personal donation to a relief fund in Illinois. At the next five o’clock follies, some nasty reporter should ask trump about his donations

  162. 162.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cleardale: Which BN? One of the BN commanders at the time, Pat White, was the BCT CDR in 2008. He’s now the CJTF OIR Commanding General and I am not pleased he’s in Iraq without me as his cultural advisor?

  166. 166.

    danielx

    @Zelma:

    Daughters are great – until puberty.

    Got that right. I know a couple who had four daughters in seven years, and the guy told me the year when the three oldest were 16, 14 and 13 was absolute hell on earth. He said it was all fun when they ranged from 9 to 2 and were all hanging off the grocery cart like grapes all chattering at the same time. Then puberty started to hit and they all started to hate him, one after the other.

  168. 168.

    Ramalama

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I know almost nothing about Wisconsin,

    Fun fact: their state motto of “America’s Dairyland” might have been “Eat Cheese or Die” — (was on the ballot), kind of light of New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” motto. But not enough cheeseheads voted for it.

  169. 169.

    Adam L Silverman

    @joel hanes: Before we deployed, but after we linked up with the BCT in JAN 2008, they put our office in the old DIVARTY building at Smith Barracks.

  170. 170.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ramalama:

    But not enough cheeseheads voted for it.

    If anybody had told me, I would’ve relocated to Wisconsin long enough to vote for it.

  172. 172.

    Ramalama

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Oh you mean you’re not part of the national cheese goofs of America? Sending out alerts to their members any time cheese gets a nod?

    It was probably a bit too goofy, Eat Cheese or Die. But imagine the feeling that such a motto would engender in a people. My brothers live in Madison. I hear there’s plenty of engendering anyway, but still showing a sense of humor or whimsy can only reflect well on them.

  176. 176.

    joel hanes

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I believe DIVARTY was somewhere up by Nurnberg when I was in.  I used to go over there with my signal Master Sergeant to scrounge hard-to-get radio parts.

    We got a new DIVARTY commander after I’d been in Germany for a year — one of his first acts was to issue an order that whenever anyone in Division Artillery saluted a superior, they were to sing out a brisk “On target, sir!”, and the superior was to reply “On target!”

    Jesus.

    We enlisted hated it; the officers hated it.   We made them hate it more: without actual collusion, the lowest ranks began to cluster outdoors in places through which officers needed to walk, making a game of it.   We were loud, enthusiastic:  “On target, sir!” “On target, sir!”  “On target, sir!”  and the poor damned S2 major or FDC lieutenant would have to return “On target!”  On target!” “On target!” on down the line.

    Malicious compliance.

    The order was rescinded in less than a month.

  177. 177.

    opiejeanne

    @danielx: Let’s not add to the prejudice against female children.
    We raised a boy and two girls. The boy and the yours to, a girl, both had their moments. The middle child, the older  daughter, skipped the Terrible Twos, the Snotty Sixes and Sevens, and every other possible nastiness, but our son during puberty was the only one of the three who was way beyond difficult. The girls just had nasty cramps, the boy was sarcastic, snotty, insulting, a door-slammer extraordinaire. He sulked, broke china when asked to unload the dishwasher, and when he was to take the newspapers to the recycling bin he scooped up a big fat cookbook and tossed it in too. If he thought he was abusing me, he hurt himself in the process because that was the only source of some recipes that he really loved. On his 15th birthday it was like someone had flipped a switch because he was suddenly the same sweet boy he had been from age 3 to 13.

    And the girls never hated their father. They probably hated me at times. The boy did, but he didn’t discriminate, he hated everyone.

  180. 180.

    danielx

    @opiejeanne:  @West of the Rockies:

    They all turned into, or back into, great kids. But my friend was very hurt at first; he had always been tight with his first daughter and then she turned fourteen and all of a sudden she hated him. He hadn’t changed – finally talked with his wife about it and the response was roughly “yeah, she’s fourteen, she does hate you right now and probably will for a year or three. Along about when she turns seventeen or eighteen she’ll figure out you’re actually a pretty good dad and then you’ll get along again”. He said at least he knew sorta what to expect after that, though he didn’t try to aggravate it.

    ETA: our daughter will be 27 in June, is a special needs child and still lives with us. Still throwing occasional tantrums worthy of a six year old, though she’s being more or less great during the current aggravation.

  181. 181.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Adam L Silverman: Presumably as contrasted with VD Hanson, whose alleged expertise in “military history” does not extend a day beyond the end of the Peloponnesian Wars – ?

  182. 182.

    joel hanes

    @opiejeanne:

    I, the eldest, and the only son, was often in trouble of one kind or another from age eight to eighteen — not the kind of overt angry defiance your son did for a couple years, but passive resistance at school, sneaky rule-breaking, dumb choices, bad grades despite aptitude, pathological procrastination at chores, other things I’d be ashamed to relate.  Many disciplinary sanctions imposed — I spent over two months of the summer after seventh grade grounded.

    My four younger sisters were pretty normal, and had their spats, but I made them look like angels by comparison.

  183. 183.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott: One can only hope that the letter carriers who came to pick up their ballots sneezed on every mother-lovin’ one of ’em. Fucking entitled bastards.

  184. 184.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cleardale: Matt was the BCT S3 when I was the cultural advisor. He was a student at USAWC when I was the cultural advisor there. He is now a baby 1 star.

    When we were in Iraq, during one of the Saturday morning staff flag football games, he tackled the BCT chaplain! He’s a great guy, but very competitive.

  188. 188.

    Adam L Silverman

    @joel hanes: Stuff like that never makes much sense. There’s the officers that understand how to foster esprit de corps and then there’s the guy that came up with what you’re describing.

  191. 191.

    Cleardale

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Nice. Did you get to see Obama in Iraq 09 when we were leaving?

    In no way shape or form humble, all brag, he pinned purple hearts on me and one of my saw gunners.

  192. 192.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cleardale: I was back CONUS by then and on nearly perpetual TDY for TRADOC G2/Human Terrain System. Pretty much 3 out of every 4 weeks on the road at meetings, OPTs, working groups, and conferences.

  194. 194.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cleardale: I’ve just gone back and reread your original comment, which I apparently misread the first time. You were one of Brian Eifler’s Soldiers? So you got peeled off and sent up to Sadr City when we came into country in Spring 2008? I bet we met at Baumholder prior to deployment or in OCT 2007 during the training rotation at Hohenfels.

  195. 195.

    Marcopolo

    Just dropping by to say WOOHOO!

    Way to go Wisconsin. Hope everyone here who can will join me in making a small monthly donation to the Wisconsin Democratic Party. They are doing amazing work under the leadership of Ben Wikler who formerly ran MoveOn.

    Have a good night/morning all.

  196. 196.

    Cleardale

    @Adam L Silverman: Yep, dirty leg Sgt. Built that wall around Sadr city south side, then when it was finished there moved to the west side to finish that side too. Certainly could have met.

  197. 197.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cleardale: Now I’m tracking. Brian was also one of my students at USAWC after we were both back from Iraq.

    Feel free to shoot me an email.

  198. 198.

    MoCA Ace

    @PenAndKey: Congratulations!!  Even in this shitty timeline there is beauty and joy in the world!  Nothing like a newborn to distract you from life.

  199. 199.

    joel hanes

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It appears that I no longer know how to reach the frontpagers by email.   I used to know how to find it before the site upgrade, but I must be overlooking the place where it tells how.

    My email address is my first name, followed immediately by the digits five, five, four, at comcast dot net.

  200. 200.

    stinger

    @joel hanes: Hah! 101st Airborne Div: “Air Assault, sir!” “Air Assault!”

    Better (worse) yet, Fort Jackson: “Victory, sir!”  “Starts here!”

  202. 202.

    joel hanes

    @stinger:

    It’s my understanding that the 101 always makes a fetish of gung-ho.   My platoon leader in AIT was on TDY from the 101, and led our PT drill, so we sang airborne chants while we ran.

    Strac motherfucker.

  203. 203.

    Another Scott

    @joel hanes: See the “Contact Us” button (without outline) at the top of the window, to the left of the page navigation buttons on the right.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  204. 204.

    stinger

    @joel hanes: Luckily for me, I was in DISCOM (Chairborne Rangers), and I did like to run. Long weekly runs were about the worst of the gung-ho that trickled down to our unit.

  208. 208.

    Richard Guhl

    Wow! Karofsky won by 163,000 votes! She could have won zero votes in Milwaukee and still won! That’s a thorough beat down.

  209. 209.

    PenAndKey

    @Richard Guhl: that’s quite a beatdown, alright. While somewhat surprising it’s really not that surprising to me. Either Vos was going to successfully screw us over again or he was going to fail spectacularly. But, right now, the general consensus among the WI democrats I know is that we’re all at the “fuck you too b,uddy!” stage of negotiation.

    And thanks everyone for the well wishes. I managed to finish reading them all this morning after passing out just after dinner. I’m heading back to the hospital now so I may not be on again, but I’m definitely letting the wife know that “all those damn jackets (you) talk to all the time” say hi. :)

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